Silica - Weston Super Mare, Somerset, Great Britain.
N 51° 20.858 W 002° 58.688
30U E 501522 N 5688484
This is "Silica" a 85 feet tall public artwork & LED lighting display, all rolled into one. This bizarre structure, known locally as "The Carrot" is located at Regent Street, Weston Super Mare, Somerset, Great Britain.
Waymark Code: WMWFJX
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/28/2017
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"Silica, an exciting new public artwork, arrived at Big Lamp Corner, Weston-super-Mare in 2006.
The illuminated spire for the 85ft (26m) structure was craned in on Sunday 12 November 2006.
Designed by artist Wolfgang Buttress, Silica was the final part of the £1m redevelopment of Big Lamp Corner and formed the part of the £11m improvement plan for the town centre called the Civic Pride Initiative.
The structure's spire contains thousands of glass bulbs which are lit by LED lights. These can be lit up with various colours and spectacular lighting combinations.
The structure incorporates a bus shelter and kiosk in its base and a moving band of text, used to display messages and public information.
The project cost £280,000 and was funded through bodies such as the South West Regional Development Agency, Weston Regeneration Partnership, Weston Tourism and Weston Town Council as part of a wider series of improvements across the town.
The ongoing improvements to the town centre, including Big Lamp Corner, came from us successfully bidding for and winning funding from the Civic Pride Initiative."
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"Standing 30m tall by the time it reaches the tip of its slender spire, it is the work of Wolfgang and Heron, a partnership of artists Wolfgang Buttress and Fiona Heron. The lead artist on the project was Buttress, who has designed various other public artworks around the world, and who is working on the dramatic UK pavilion for the Milan 2015 Expo.
Silica, which was installed in 2006, represents the maritime locale of Weston-super-Mare by embodying the ideas of sand, water and light. It is faced in glass reinforced concrete, with a texture and colour reminiscent of sand, while its overall shape can be read as that of a water droplet. Though some locals believe it is reminiscent of a vegetable, as you’ll read later, if it resembles anything else (in shape if not in scale) then it’s probably Ješted Tower, a television transmitter tower in the Czech Republic.
Silica features some 6,000 cast glass prisms containing LEDs (which cost less to run to than a couple of table lamps, so efficient is the technology). During the day, the prisms housing the LEDs catch the daylight and at night the LEDs give a colour-changing display. A band of LEDs towards the bottom displays text-based messages and public information both day and night.
Silica stands on Big Lamp Corner, a road junction in Weston-super-Mare named for a large street lamp which used to occupy on the site. I find the idea of a populace so astounded by public street lighting that they name part of town after it to be rather wonderful, and Silica’s lights pay homage to its illustrious predecessor."
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Silica Address:
"Silica" - Big Lamp Corner, Regent Street, Weston Super Mare. UK.